CHICAGO- Following is the statement of Emma Tai, Executive Director of United Working Families (UWF), on Mayor Rahm Emanuel's decision not to run for re-election:
"In 2014, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis came together with the healthcare workers of SEIU HCII and the community activists of Action Now and Grassroots Illinois Action to create United Working Families. We forced a mayoral runoff and took Rahm Emanuel to the limit in 2015.

"Four years later, instead of answering for the slain teenagers and displaced families and struggling workers and violent cops, Rahm decided to take a pass. Good riddance.

"Emanuel turned Chicago into a city where Black and Brown people could not live safe and healthy lives, where working families could not afford child care or rent, where developers snatched up land made cheap by African-American displacement, and where parents starved themselves to keep their neighborhood high school open.

"With Emanuel gone, we can and we will win a different future--a city for the many, not just the wealthy few.

"The people of Chicago need and deserve public safety without occupation, living wage jobs, and flourishing public schools. Those who want to win the fifth floor must speak to that vision. Anything less, and we're taking a pass on you, too."

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United Working Families is an independent political organization by and for the 99%. UWF affiliate members include: Action Now, Chicago Teachers Union, Cook County College Teachers Union, Grassroots Illinois Action, SEIU Healthcare Illinois Indiana, Warehouse Workers Organizing Committee, United Electrical Workers Western Region, Illinois Nurses Association, People United for Action, Workers United CMRJB, 22nd Ward IPO, 25th Ward IPO, and 33rd Ward Working Families.